Total contributions to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) fell to Rs 479.96 crore in financial year 2024-25. Its closing balance, however, touched an all-time high of Rs 8,452.06 crore as the spending, too, fell to a five-year low of Rs 87.85 lakh.

According to the latest Receipt and Payment Accounts (Audited) statement available on the PM CARES Fund portal, domestic donations accounted for Rs 479.04 crore of the total contributions while foreign donations added up to about Rs 92 lakh. The Fund also received Rs 475.14 crore as interest income (Rs 469.37 crore from fixed deposits, Rs 5.76 crore from regular accounts), about Rs 13.49 lakh as refund of tax deducted at source (TDS) on interest on fixed deposits from banks, and Rs 324.65 crore as “refund from implementing agencies”.

Meanwhile, the total spending fell to Rs 87.85 lakh, including Rs 87.84 lakh on the PM CARES for Children Scheme and Rs 451 as bank charges and SMS charges. The total spending was Rs 15.59 crore in 2023-24; Rs 437.87 crore in 2022-23; Rs 3,716.29 crore in 2021-22; and Rs 3,976.17 crore in 2020-21.

The closing balance touched an all-time high of Rs 8,452.06 crore at the end of 2024-25, marking an increase of 17.83 per cent as compared to the closing balance of Rs 7,173.03 crore at the end of 2023-24.

The contributions to the Fund peaked in 2020-21, the year saw the outbreak of the second Covid wave, when it received Rs 7,183.77 crore as domestic donations and Rs 494.93 crore as foreign donations. In 2021-22, it got Rs 1,896.76 crore as domestic donations and Rs 40.12 crore as foreign donations; in 2022-23, it got Rs 909.64 crore as domestic donations and Rs 2.57 crore as foreign donations; and in 2023-24, it got Rs 681.81 crore as domestic donations and Rs 1.13 crore as foreign donations.

At the end of 2019-20, the closing balance was Rs 3,076.62 crore. This increased to Rs 7,014 crore at the end of 2020-21, fell to Rs 5,415.65 crore in 2021-22, and then climbed to Rs 6,283.68 in 2022-23, Rs 7,173.03 crore in 2023-24, and Rs 8,452.06 crore in 2024-25.

The PM CARES Fund was registered as a public charitable trust under the Registration Act, 1908, on March 27, 2020 — days after the country went into a lockdown in the wake of Covid-19. The Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairman of the Fund, while the Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister are ex-officio trustees.